Spiritism

"Many people in Hungary are engaged in soul evocation. I myself have participated in thirty or forty such sessions. It happened that the souls also wrote names: Napoleon, Zrinyi, Mátyás, Wesselényi, Deák and other famous names. Each name is a different writing. Some knew one, others another. Someone in the company speaks: - "Géza, ask for a writing too! I asked my father if they could summon. - Yes. - If so, please write down his name. The medium (a charming twelve year old girl) turns her face towards me and asks what was my father's name? I tell her. The medium's hand writes it down with its usual nervous tremor: Alexander Czigler. The company looks at me questioningly. I just answer, looking at the paper: - Father, this is not your writing. The medium's hand is on the paper again. The letters are different, the end line is different, but the letters are not my father's round, strong letters and the underline is not my father's. - 'Father,' I say again, 'you never wrote your name in cz. The medium writes the name like this for the third time: Zigler. - "No it isn't," I say. "My father spelled his name Ziegler. And his spelling was like no one else's. The psychic then put his finger on the money. The Apostle John wishes to speak. The apostle said: - "To him that is unbelieving, souls never give evidence. And that was the end of the meeting. From the New Year's Day of this year, when I first attended the meetings of the soul summoners (1894), there was never any question as to whether I was a believer or not. For I am a man of few words, and when questions arose in my soul, I kept silent. I preferred to be a spectator rather than a questioner. From the first session onwards, the souls always said that they knew our thoughts. But they were never struck by my doubts in thought. Faith, earnest faith in their existence, that's what it takes, they always said. And if sometimes they only wanted to make a statement to those of undoubted faith, I was always named so that I could be present. The rest then retired to other rooms, and the answers of the souls were kept secret. This was the case, for example, when I asked them to shed light on the anonymous notary of King Béla. Answer: - He was an expelled monk. They also told me his name: - Innocent. This name did not correspond to any of the names the historians had found out. The spirits spoke in every language the party could understand. We got answers in Latin, English, French, German and Italian. But once Béla Tóth came to the summoning session. And he asked questions in Turkish. Not only did the Turkish souls not respond, but other people did not respond either. The opinion of the company was that Béla Tóth was a sceptic. In the meetings I attended, I never heard any certainty from the spirits. There was no sign or revelation, only vague or ambiguous answers, mostly childish, sometimes rude; - that was all. And yet I do not laugh at spiritism. So many men of excellent minds believe in it, that I must think I was only unfortunate enough. The things I read and hear make me think. I am not talking about America or England, where millions are already engaged in conversations with departed souls. The Vay family is closer, they live among us. A Baroness Vay receives answers from them in a living voice, and they appear to her. Then there is a engineer of European name, Zipernovszky. He also communicates with them without a medium. They give him answers on a table with letters on it, without him having to move money from letter to letter. I'm sorry, but I don't know either of them. If true, it's a big deal. A single word, a certainty of the other world, would be a greater event than anything the world has ever seen; it would turn the whole world upside down: the guns would fall and a new social order would emerge on the basis of universal brotherhood. But souls are secretive."